I'm very proud of Fit'n'Flexed diet plan client Hani Banna, making some great changes to his physique!
In this article, Hani speaks of his experience working with me.
Read about Hani's lessons, thought and opinions on the plan, it may or may not be exactly what you're looking for!
HANI BANNA
Age: 42 years old
Training background: Medium level strength training 3 times a week for the last 1.5 years
Eating Background: intermittent fasting - same approach used during this to fit Hani's lifestyle
"I have been training and tracking my eating for the last 18 months. I had some good initial results but I hit a plateau within the first few months and was spinning my wheels.
I decided to give Dayne's Fit'N'Flexed custom plan a go seeing the results he's had and his scientific approach. I ordered my custom eating plan from Dayne with the aim of reducing my body fat in preparation for a slow bulk stage afterwards.
The eating plan involved tracking my calories and macros to ensure I hit the targets Dayne had set for me, reviewing the progress with Dayne over email every 3-4 weeks and making some minor adjustments to keep the fat loss going, whether it's cutting some calories, introducing cardio or doing strategically timed refeeds.
The initial plan was for a 3 months cut however with Christmas and New Years falling in the middle I needed to extend it to 4 months to reach my goal.
The first 3 months involved eating a lot of quality foods with the usual ~20% of treats (flexible dieting style). In the 4th month as I was leaning out and wanting to lose that last couple of cms off my waist I felt a need to reduce my treats and increase my fiber intake. This seemed to help, but maybe it was more psychological.
There were also many occasions towards the end of the cut where I felt fairly tired and lacking energy (depleted). Dayne was invaluable in helping me overcome this with some strategic refeeds. I even managed to schedule a 2 day carb refeed over Christmas which was a real saviour! I still think refeeds are a bit of a black art but they do seem to work.
From a training perspective I was training 3 times a week guided by an excellent Personal Trainer here in Melbourne (David Smith Personal Training) who helped me stay on top of any injuries and issues.
And having read most of Daynes articles, I got stuck into drinking coffee! Who knows, maybe it did really help to shift some of that fat.
And the results of the 4 months Fit'N'Flexed cut?
- Weight went from 74kg to 67kg (7kg drop)
- Waist circumference went from 86cm to 76cm (10cm or 4 inches drop)
I was very happy with the results and was blown away by the change in appearing a ~4kg fat loss can have.
Top 5 Insights and Surprises:
1) Change is slow
Even though looking at the before and after photos the change is dramatic, during the process it didn't feel like much was happening. At certain stages I would look at my progress pics from week to week and notice no change at all. Lesson learnt: trust in the process, if you're in the right calorie deficit then change has to occur. Your body might fight it and try all sorts of tricks to keep you at your current weight but eventually you will lose fat when in a caloric deficit.
2) Abs are made in the kitchen
As they say. I was always under the impression that I needed to lift massive weights for my abs to appear. I had been training in the same way and at around the same loading for the last 18 months, the only difference was my diet. I train for 1 hour at a time, 3 times a week doing strength training. I worked hard during the sessions using moderate weights but I didn't really load up the weights to any significant levels. I was very surprised that I was able to cut to 10.5% at these loads. I am now focusing more on getting the most from medium weights as I think it will help me stay injury free. That's not to say that using heavier weight wouldn't be even more beneficial to build more muscle, but for cutting fat it seems that the right calorie deficit is king.
3) Tracking body fat with waist measurement helped.
Throughout the cut I measured my waist circumference at least once a week, and weighed myself and took a photo on that same day every week. Like most men I deposit most of my fat on my waist, so this single measurement told me whether I was losing body fat or not. After losing the first 3.5 inches I decided I will set myself a nice round number of 4 inches reduction around my waist as the end target for the cut phase. This really helped with my motivation and I could easily track it on a daily and weekly basis to make sure I'm making progress. A skin fold test is great but not practical for weekly tracking.
4) Cutting is a fight for satiety.
I heard that dieting is a fight for satiety but I never really understood it until my last month of the cut! When you're on poor mans calories finding the highest volume food for the least calories became the name of the game. My go to meal became pre-cut supermarket salads, a can of tuna and 100% fat free salad dressing! The daily egg white omelet was also mucho satisfying. For sweet treats anything sugar free. And let's not forget the SkinnyCow icecream!
5) Intermittent Fasting (smaller eating window) helps.
I have been following an 8/16 Intermittent Fasting eating style for a couple of years now. Intermittent Fasting by itself doesn't seem to be the answer but combined with the right calorie deficit and macros it really helped with losing fat as I only had an 8 hour eating window. I usually ate between 11am and 7pm. It meant that I could have 2 bigger more satisfying meals in those 8 hours plus some snacks which made it a lot easier to stick to my calorie target and stay in a defecit. On the occasions where I had an early breakfast I found myself hungrier and needing more food during the day.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed the last 4 months cut using the Fit'N'Flexed Custom Diet. Dayne was very supportive and responsive over email (I still don't know how he does it at the price he charges for the plan and followup support).
Daynes guidance when fat loss slowed or stalled was invaluable. That's the point where I could have got stuck, spun my wheels or given up. Instead I was given specific adjustments to keep the cut going.
I remember in my last week of cutting having a small hamburger and some fries and waking up the next day leaner! So this stuff does work. I have since recommended it to a number of friends and family and they have ordered their own custom diet from Dayne. A big thanks to Dayne for his generosity and guidance."
"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!"
Are you going to be the next case study? Check this out if you're up to the challenge!
